Unconventional Public Transit Project of the Day

Climbing up the steep and narrow streets of the Comuna 13 neighborhood of Medellin, Colombia, is getting a lot easier.

The city has nearly finished construction of a six-section outdoor escalator system stretching more than 1,200 feet up into the slum neighborhood. According to this article from the BBC, the escalators cut travel time up the hill from more than a half hour to just six minutes.

The two-way escalators are free to ride and cost about $7 million to build. They’ll serve the neighborhood’s 12,000 people with a planned three hours of service per day. It’s part of a transportation effort aimed at the city’s poor – a project that also includes the city’s Metrocable gondola system.